Syed Aman of Franklin Square provided material support to terrorist organization, federal prosecutors say

The FBI arrested a Long Island man who intended to join the Islamic State terror group in Syria just before he boarded a plane to Qatar at Kennedy Airport on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday charged Syed Aman, 28, of Franklin Square, with providing material support to the terrorist organization, officials said.

The complaint said Aman is the author of an 18-page motivational document called "The Realities of This World Manual" which justified the 9/11 attacks, encouraged others to fight for ISIS and said "killing kuffar (nonbelievers) and the aiders of Crusaders is not sinful, but rather rewarded."

Aman was scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Justice Peggy Kuo on Wednesday afternoon in Brooklyn. Aman’s attorney, Michael Padden, of the Brooklyn Federal Defenders Office, did not return requests for comment.

"Aman was steadfast in his attempts to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS and fortunately his evil plan to wage jihad was thwarted," said Breon Peace, U.S. attorney.

Aman planned to travel from Doha, Qatar, to Istanbul before crossing the border into Syria in order to join ISIS. Aman, a U.S. citizen, said he wanted "to kill Americans" in a social media post in late October, the complaint said.

Aman expressed support for ISIS on social media throughout 2023 and 2024, and sent money to a confidential source to support ISIS in Syria, the complaint said. He told the source, who was working with the FBI, that he wished to travel to Syria to engage in jihad, or holy war, on behalf of ISIS.

Aman told the source in June 2023 that he had previously planned to join ISIS but his mother took his passport and he was no longer able to travel.

In July, according to the complaint, Aman contacted the confidential source, telling him that he had gotten his passport and had just returned from a trip for Hajj, a religious pilgrimage, in Saudi Arabia. Aman said he needed money to travel and that he believed he was being tracked by the FBI.

Aman made two attempts to travel to the Middle East last month, the complaint said, but his purchases were blocked by his credit card company.

Aman was eventually able to book a flight from Kennedy Airport to Bangladesh via Doha. He told the source that he planned on disembarking from the flight in Qatar, where he would purchase a ticket to Turkey. Aman then planned to cross into Syria and join ISIS, according to the complaint.